Highlights - March 2006 to February 2007

Richard Smith

This website is nine years old this month so it's time to do a review of the past twelve months.

My year started as it finished, with some very high spring tides covering the marshes at Parkgate and Burton. The tide on March 30th 2006 was the highest for 20 years, bringing the sea, and over 20 Water Rails, right over Denhall Lane at Burton. On the same day at Parkgate the BBC were filming for the second series of 'Coast', including some great footage of a Spotted Crake - the program showing birds from both Heswall Shore and Parkgate was shown in November. The high tides resulted in the usual great views of Parkgate specialities such as Hen Harrier, Jack Snipe, Water Rail and Short-eared Owl, along with hundreds of mixed waders and duck. It was particularly pleasing, and somewhat surprising, to see nine Short-eared Owls on February 20th (2007) after almost a total lack of sightings of this charismatic Owl this last winter.

Kestrel picking up a Water Vole from Parkgate Marsh, March 28th 2006, Neil McLaren ©

The high tide Parkgate Birdwatches are justly renowned by visiting birders, as is the Leach's Petrel passage off the mouth of the estuary in September. Unfortunately this last September didn't produce a single Leach's with just a few seen at the end of August and beginning of  October; this lack of sightings was not unexpected as we were due a poor year after two good ones. But then we got a big surprise! After several days of strong south-west winds in December many Leach's Petrels were blown from their wintering grounds in to the English Channel and Irish Sea. On December 8th, when the wind swung round to the north-west, many of the birds in the Irish Sea ended up in the River Mersey mouth and along the North Wirral coast, Hilbre and Point of Ayr. We had well over 70 birds flying westwards along the North Wirral coast  and 190 were recorded in the Mersey channel between New Brighton and Crosby. To put this in perspective, these were the first December records of Leach's Petrels in Cheshire and Wirral for one hundred years! See Leach's Petrel article.

Leach's Petrels weren't the only good sea birds to be seen over the past twelve months. In March we had 637 Little Gulls past Hilbre in one day and on April 25th there was a very good movement of birds including 350 Gannets, 140 Manx Shearwater and hundreds of auks. A Laughing Gull flew past Hilbre on May 14th, a national rarity. We were surprised by a Sooty Shearwater on the unusual date of May 28th, followed by two more on the more usual dates of August 10th and September 3rd, on the latter date we also had over 200 Manx Shearwaters flying past. It was another good summer for Storm Petrels with 30 off New Brighton the max count in July and 26 at Hilbre the max August count. It was also a good summer for Arctic Skuas, max monthly counts included four at Gronant in June and five off Red Rocks in September. 40 Black Terns flying past Meols on September 13th were a fabulous sight, as were five Pomarine Skuas flying westwards along Hoylake Shore on October 4th. Large numbers of Great Crested Grebes were counted off North Wirral throughout the winter with a count of 378 on November 7th and 458 on February 7th, the latter being the highest ever count for Cheshire & Wirral. Near hurricane force winds in January brought a very unseasonable Common Tern to Hilbre, first January record for Cheshire & Wirral. Common Scoters are very numerous in Liverpool Bay but rarely more than a few tens are seen off the Dee Estuary, so it was pleasing to have counts of 2,000 off Hilbre in October 2006 and 2-3,000 off Point of Ayr on February 3rd and 4th 2007.

Both our tern colonies did well with 160 Little Terns fledged at Gronant and 722 pairs of Common Terns at Shotton, yet another record number.

It was reportedly the warmest autumn and winter on record and no doubt this contributed to the relatively low wader numbers. Warmer springs are probably the reason for Avocets breeding further north but the first successful breeding record for Avocet in the Dee Estuary area was well overdue. The pair at Inner Marsh Farm produced three fledged young. Six Little Stints turned up at the same site on the unusual date of June 11th. Greenshank numbers were low on the English side of the estuary, but they seem to have taken a liking to the new bunded pool on the Connah's Quay Reserve where 30 was max count. A juvenile Curlew Sandpiper spent the whole of this last winter at Inner Marsh Farm, I believe this is the first record of an over-wintering bird in Cheshire & Wirral.

Brent Geese reached over 100 for the second year running with 108 on January 1st. Large flocks of Pink-footed Geese are always a welcome sight passing overhead, a large movement took place in January with at least 6,000 flying over the estuary on their way from Norfolk to Lancashire between January 22nd to 24th. Roosting Little Egrets reached a max of 169 in the autumn; they bred successfully again at Burton. The usual Marsh Harriers and Ospreys passed through the estuary on migration; Hen Harriers continue to make a great sight hunting over the marshes and coming in to roost at Parkgate, we had two ringtail and two sub-adult males most of the winter.

April 2006 was a very good month for rarities; with Subalpine Warbler, Alpine Swift, Chough, Serin, Long-eared Owl and Hoopoe definite sightings with also a possible Dartford Warbler and Wryneck - an exciting month!

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